Hi all,

Im in the middle of making a tennis ball launcher for my dog. I have done most of the work, but when it comes to powering the launcher using a lipo and ESC im getting some issues. Please bear with me as I have literally just starting learning about arduino and this is my first ever project with the coding etc

So basically I have the following wiring setup:



If I wire the power to arduino from the ESC to the 5v, I seem to have an issue where the ESC will not arm and none of the motors etc will work. If I wire the ESC and power input to VIN, the ESC arms and all hardware works, but the motors and servo fail to work after activating the distance sensor. If I use the USB input to power arduino and then have a lipo battery powering ESC/motors all the system works flawlessly. I can't seem to get my head around it, only thing I can think is because the 5v is being used as an output for both servo and distance sensor so cant be used an an input for arduino?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

If I wire the power to arduino from the ESC to the 5v, I seem to have an issue where the ESC will not arm

What do you mean by “arm”?

Your diagram does not show any power being supplied to the Nano. You need to wire the LIPO’s 11.1V to Vin. If you wire the ESC’s output to 5V, unless the ESC is full on, the Nano won’t be powered.

When you used the USB cable, you were supplying power to the Nano and hence it worked.

 

Servos and motors draw a lot of current when they are activated under load. They also generate a lot of supply interference which will affect the MCU. It is best to keep the Arduino and distance sensor supply separate from that used for the mechanisms. Make sure that the common reference (supply -) for each is wired independently right back to the supply sources common to avoid ground loops.

 

What do you mean by “arm”?

Your diagram does not show any power being supplied to the Nano. You need to wire the LIPO’s 11.1V to Vin. If you wire the ESC’s output to 5V, unless the ESC is full on, the Nano won’t be powered.

When you used the USB cable, you were supplying power to the Nano and hence it worked.

The idea was that I wired the 5v live from the ESC to the nano 5v pin, so once the lipo is connected to the ESC and the ESC is switched on, it provides power to the nano. Problem is once I did this, nothing worked, the nano powered on, but the ESC didn't sequence so it could power the motors. (when i mean arm, I mean its gone through its cycle and activated, it needs to do this to work). The motors are powered directly by the Lipo and the servo and distance sensor are powered by arduino, the ESC is controlled by the nano. Im not sure if its not working because if I wire to the 5v pin, its being used as an input and an output. If I wire the 11.1v to the VIN the ESC doesn't pass its arming sequence and wont power the motors.

Hope that makes sense?